Academics for subject-wise categorisation of UGC-approved journals

Although the University Grants Commission (UGC) has prepared a revised approved list of journals that needs to be considered for appointment and promotion of teaching faculty, academics here say there are still difficulties in going about the task.

Recommendations for 7,255 additional journal titles were received from 141 universities during the second phase of opening of the ‘recommendation platform’ between June 16 and 22. All recommended journal titles were subjected to a checklist devised by the UGC Standing Committee. After the removal of journals that were of poor quality, duplicates and failed to fulfil the criteria, 2,407 unique journal titles were included in the UGC-approved list.

During the first phase, more than 800 journal titles of poor quality were removed by the Standing Committee from the list of 6,507 journals on the basis of feedback from individuals and institutions.

However, universities and colleges say difficulties persist because the journal titles have not been categorised subject-wise for reference at the time of approving teachers for the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) and Direct Recruitment of Teachers and other academic staff as required under the UGC (minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges) Regulation, 2016.

The UGC-approved list of journals consists of those indexed in WoS (Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index); journals indexed in Scopus; journals indexed in Indian Citation Index ; journals recommended by the Members of the UGC Standing Committee and Language Committee; and journals recommended by the universities during the two phases.

“The UGC crackdown on predatory journals has been long overdue. There have been many instances of teachers securing promotion based on publication of their papers in fake and predatory journals,” a senior professor of Bharathidasan University said, adding that journals started after 2000 needed to be scrutinised thoroughly.

At present, the UGC has instructed the academic community to route complaints about predatory, fake or questionable journals found in the UGC-approved list through universities or through research guide or faculty in a university.

It has given an opportunity to universities to double-check their recommendations and pass on the information about the ISSN/EISSN number, publisher's name and remarks, in case an undeserving journal has been inadvertently included in the list submitted by them.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/academics-for-subject-wise-categorisation-of-ugc-approved-journals/article19680575.ece